Production of Sulfated Organic Compounds in Cell Factories

Sulfation of organic molecules is a reaction that has a significant potential value for biological synthesis of organic chemicals in cell factories.

Some sulfated compounds may be of direct interest for biological production.  One example is zosteric acid, a sulfate ester of p-coumaric acid, which has potential uses as an anti-biofoulant and as a precursor for functional polymer membranes. Sulfation may also give an added functionality to chemical precursors, such as those used in polymers, due to the charged nature of the sulfate group. Thirdly, sulfation may be used to change the chemical nature of a chemical of interest, namely, by increasing solubility or decreasing toxicity towards the production organism. As example, the antioxidant of red wine, resveratrol, has very limited solubility that hampers biological production, however, the sulfated molecule has significantly increased solubility and bioavailability. The change in toxicity may also find an alternative use in bioproduction. The preferred biomass substrate for biological production of low to intermediate valued compounds may be derived from lignocellulose and contains a number of inhibitory phenolic compounds. When sulfated the inhibitory compounds become less toxic, and sulfation is this way a means to limiting the inhibitory effect during growth in lignocellulosic biomass.

We show that sulfation of a range of compounds is possible in a biological system, and that sulfation may be used to detoxify inhibitory compounds, such as those found in biomass hydrolysate. We present metabolic engineering approaches for optimizing the sulfation activity.